President George W. Bush today announced the National Medal of Arts
recipients and National Humanities Medal recipients for 2006.

The awards will be presented by the President in an Oval Office ceremony
on Thursday, November 9, 2006. The President will be joined by First
Lady Laura Bush, Dana Gioia, Chairman, National Endowment for the Arts,
and Dr. Bruce Cole, Chairman, National Endowment for the Humanities.

National Humanities Medal Recipients:

Fouad Ajami, Middle Eastern Studies Scholar - Washington, DC

James Buchanan, Economist - Fairfax, VA

Nickolas Davatzes, Historian - Wilton, CT

Robert Fagles, Translator and Classicist - Princeton, NJ

The Hoover Institution (John Raisian, Senior Fellow and Director of the
Hoover Institution, will accept the award on behalf of the Institution)
- Palo Alto, CA

Mary Lefkowitz, Classicist - Wellesley, MA

Bernard Lewis, Middle Eastern Studies Scholar - Princeton, NJ

Mark Noll, Historian of Religion - Notre Dame, IN

Meryle Secrest, Biographer - Washington, DC

Kevin Starr, Historian - San Francisco, CA

National Medal of Arts Recipients:

William Bolcom, Composer - Ann Arbor, MI

Cyd Charisse, Dancer - Los Angeles, CA

Roy R. DeCarava, Photographer - New York, NY

Wilhelmina C. Holladay, Arts Patron - Washington, DC

Interlochen Center for the Arts (Jeffrey Kimpton, President of
Interlochen Center for the Arts, will accept the award on behalf of the
Center) - Interlochen, MI

Erich Kunzel, Pops Orchestra Conductor - Cincinnati, OH (Mr. Kunzel will
not be in attendance. He will receive his medal at a later date.)